22 April, 2008
(The Star) - Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is prepared to be investigated by a full and formal public inquiry if Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim were to become the Prime Minister.
However, the former premier said he hoped that those who sit on the board of inquiry would be neutral, impartial and probably foreigners.
“He’s (Anwar’s) welcome to do that if he becomes the Prime Minister of Malaysia, but if he wins members of the ruling party to his side it is the present leader who should be blamed because he can’t even get the loyalty of his own members,” he said during a 30-minute interview on the BBC World News HARDtalk programme with Stephen Sackur.
He was asked to respond to Anwar’s statement that he would call for a full and public inquiry into Dr Mahathir’s misdeeds if Anwar were to become the Prime Minister.
Asked whether he was ready to express regret over what he did to Anwar now that he has retired for several years, Dr Mahathir said: “Why should I regret? He was arrested under the laws of the country. He was tried in the courts of the country. Sentenced by court. If he was not wrong, no matter what you think about our judiciary, I don’t think he would have been sent to prison.”
On Anwar saying that he would push politics that were not racially defined, Dr Mahathir said that it was opportunism for Anwar, who was now out of the government but never did anything when he was in the government.
Asked about Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s conciliatory gesture of offering monetary compensation to judges who were suspended during the 1988 judicial crisis, he said: “Fine, but it’s a political strategy by a man who is very unpopular at the moment wanting to show that he’s going to do something right.”
“Nobody can say anything against him. Newspapers report about how great he is. His own supporters misled him into believing that if he holds elections before the end of his term, he would win a clean sweep. If you look at the record of his statements, he said he would win with zero opposition.”
On claims that his criticisms against Abdullah over the last few years had brought his successor down, he said: “I don’t see why I should not criticise wrongdoings by him.”
On why he picked Abdullah to replace him as Prime Minister, he said Abdullah was known as “Mr Clean”.
To a question about some of those with Umno blaming Dr Mahathir for tearing down the party, he said that sometimes it might be necessary to do so.
“I’m a doctor; if one leg is becoming gangrenous I remove it,” he said.
Vintage Mahathir retorts while given hard time in 'HardTalk'By Leslie Lau
21 April, 2008
KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 — It was pretty much the kind of answers expected of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi must resign to save Umno and the Barisan Nasional government; the PM gave priority to his family over the country, he told the BBC on the international news station’s "HardTalk" programme aired today.
But in the 20 minutes or so in which he was uncharacteristically at the mercy of host Stephen Sackur, Malaysia’s former strongman showed how vulnerable he was to the rapid fire questioning of his own legacy as Prime Minister of Malaysia.
At times, he was literally squirming, and his discomfort showed through a forced smile as Sackur asked him tough questions and interrupted frequently.
“You make up these stories and take as the truth. Who are these hundreds who end up in jail,” he asked in answer to a question from Sackur about his human rights record and charges that hundreds of his political enemies had been locked up in jail.
Asked to comment about the Hindraf rally last December which Sackur described as a consequence of racial imbalances set in stone by Dr Mahathir, the former PM tried to deflect the attack.
“Why now?” Dr Mahathir asked, to which the show’s host responded deadpan: “Because people who disagreed with you during your time ended up in jail.”
And the irony of some of Dr M's criticisms of Abdullah’s administration appeared to escape the former PM, who, though uncomfortable at times, plodded on with his answers despite the many interruptions.
To a suggestion that Abdullah was now attempting to dismantle a system which bred corruption and a tainted judiciary, he responded: “He is not dismantling the system. The newspapers now only report about him. No one can say anything against him.”
When asked to justify his constant sniping at the government, he said he did not understand why he could not criticise the wrongdoings of the present government.
Questioned further as to what wrongdoings he was talking about, Dr Mahathir’s reply was Abdullah’s promise “to remove corruption.”
Dr Mahathir also did not see any reason to retract a statement made years ago in which he described Anglo-Saxon culture as a proponent of war, genocide and sodomy.
He said it was a fact, and justified his statement, pointing out that “Europeans called us lazy Malays” but the Malays had to accept it because they didn’t have any way of protesting. And now when he commented on the Westerners “you don’t like it.”
Responding on comments of his reportedly anti-Semitic remarks, Dr Mahathir said “anti-Semitism was created by the Jews, and we cannot say anything.”
Still, he ended the interview promising to continue speaking out. “Why should I keep quiet?”
Other Mahathir replies on "hot" issues
On Anwar Ibrahim’s push for a colour blind Malaysia: “... opportunism for him. Anwar never did anything when he was in government.”
On whether he regretted putting Anwar behind bars: “Why should I regret? He was tried by the laws of the country.”
On Anwar’s claim that he can get BN members to cross over so he can then form the new government and that he would go after Mahathir for all his wrongdoings: “He can try when he becomes prime minister.”
On why he appointed Pak Lah to replace him as Prime Minister: “I thought I would appoint a clean person to replace me... we all make mistakes. The British people voted in Blair who told lies.”
A long-brewing row between Malaysia's former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and his chosen successor, Abdullah Badawi, appears to be coming to a head, the BBC's Jonathan Kent writes.
The joke doing the rounds in Malaysia at the moment is that Mahathir Mohamad is suffering from PPMS - Post Prime Ministerial Syndrome.
The symptoms, say the wags, include irritability, emotional outbursts and a tendency to criticise everything and everyone.
When he retired in October 2003 he promised not to interfere in government. But in the last year Dr Mahathir has trained his famously acerbic tongue on his former colleagues, including the man he chose to be his successor, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
"There must be issues that really provoke him," says A. Kadir Jasin, former editor of the New Straits Times newspaper group.
"Those four issues are the sudden rise in the number of import permits for cars which he claimed affected the national car project, Proton; the sale of a motorcycle company by Proton, the removal of Proton's chief executive and the cancellation of the bridge to Singapore," Mr Kadir believes.
'The limit'
The common thread between all these issues is that of Mahathir's legacy.
For more than two decades he single-mindedly drove Malaysia towards industrial development through a combination of large scale state intervention (such as launching pet projects like Proton) and by building a coterie of favoured businessmen to whom were handed government projects and lucrative monopolies. In the process he won a legion of admirers around the developing world.
I have helped many people up only for them to stab me in the back... I'm in the habit of choosing the wrong people 
Abdullah Badawi broke with Dr Mahathir's penchant for mega-projects to concentrate on problems like rural poverty and education while rebuilding institutions debased during his predecessor's tenure - the police, the judiciary and the civil service.
Matters started to come to a head in May after the government abandoned plans for a new bridge to Singapore - a project Dr Mahathir had championed when he was in office - on the grounds that it might contravene international law.
"This is the limit," Dr Mahathir declared then. "To surrender your sovereignty to Singapore as if you are scared of them... This is a 'half past six country' with no guts."
By June he had ratcheted up the rhetoric, announcing publicly that he regretted appointing Mr Abdullah as his successor.
"I have helped many people up only for them to stab me in the back," Dr Mahathir said. "I'm in the habit of choosing the wrong people."
TV response
By the beginning of August a whispering campaign against members of Abdullah Badawi's immediate family had gathered momentum. Dr Mahathir, telling reporters he was in fear of being arrested, alleged that Mr Abdullah's son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin, was handing out government contracts and determining policy.
After months of resolutely refusing to be drawn, Mr Abdullah went on national television to confront his detractors. "I chose to keep quiet because I didn't want to quarrel with [Dr Mahathir] in the newspaper," he said, and defended his family.
His son, Kamaluddin Abdullah, whose company Scomi was caught up in the nuclear technology for Libya scandal, has made a fortune in the oil industry.
"Kamal has never used his relationship with me to advance in business," said his father.
As for his son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin, Mr Abdullah countered: "People say I do the things as Khairy says. There is no such thing."
That did not silence Dr Mahathir. "There are several... things which I will come out with, one at a time, [including] evidence of corruption," he told a news conference last week, as he dismissed Mr Abdullah's response.
"All he was saying was that 'I'm a good man... I'm a religious man, I wouldn't do this'. But specific answers, there were none," Dr Mahathir said.
'Not protected'
The expression often used to describe the smoke and mirrors of Malaysian politics is wayang kulit, shadow puppetry.
The root of the dispute is about Mahathir needing to act to prevent too much of his past unravelling, leaving him possibly open to prosecution
"It's the politics of patronage and power - it's about the control of money and the control of power, that is the root of the problem," said P. Gunasegaram, of The Edge, an independent and outspoken business weekly.
R. Sivarasa, a prominent human rights lawyer and vice-president of the opposition National Justice Party, agrees that it is about legacy in the widest sense.
Because although Dr Mahathir is casting aspersions about his successor, of the two men he is the far more ready target - not least over the issue of state funds being used to bail out one of his sons' companies during the August 1997 financial crisis.
"The root of the dispute is about Mahathir needing to act to prevent too much of his past unravelling, leaving him possibly open to prosecution," Mr Sivarasa said. "He needed to see the system absolutely under control, even after his departure. He's now realised that Abdullah is not protecting him and he's now moving for a solution."
Come November, Abdullah Badawi will face the only people who can unseat him; the 2,500 delegates to the annual general assembly of his United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).
There are many in the party frustrated that Mr Abdullah has reduced the flow of government contracts that oil its political wheels. But in Mr Abdullah's favour is the party's feudal loyalty to its leader - which may count for even more than money when the time comes to vote.
"He's got the power of incumbency and if you look at the history of UMNO politics, no-one has managed to unseat an incumbent," Mr Gunasegaran said.
If Mr Abdullah survives November's party assembly, Dr Mahathir might indeed find his world unravelling. For he may be judged to have made his move and failed. And as the old adage has it, if you move to strike the king strike well, for if he lives he will have your head.9 Aug, 2006
| By Jonathan Kent BBC correspondent in Kuala Lumpur |
Malaysia's former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad says he plans to produce evidence of corruption against the current government.
It is the latest in a series of attacks by Dr Mahathir that some see as an attempt to undermine his hand-picked successor, Abdullah Badawi.
Dr Mahathir promised not to interfere when he retired three years ago.
But the partial dismantling of his legacy by the man he chose to succeed him seems to have proved too much.
Abdullah Badawi had already called back major contracts handed out by Dr Mahathir to his allies and eased the former prime minister out of an advisory position at Proton - the struggling national carmaker.
But his decision to cancel Dr Mahathir's controversial plans for a new bridge to Singapore appears to have been the final straw.
For months Mr Abdullah kept his council in the face of sustained attacks from his predecessor.
But this week, the prime minister broke his silence, denying charges of nepotism and claims that his son-in-law decided government policy.
Now Dr Mahathir is hinting that he will present proof of corruption within government.
If convincing evidence emerges, it could be a heavy blow for Mr Abdullah, who is widely seen as one of the cleanest politicians of his generation.
Dr Mahathir's critics accuse him of presiding over a collapse of standards in Malaysian public life during 22 years in power.24 Jan, 2003
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"In the evening, icy cold blast sweeping in from Asia, leaving ill-fated Congressman scurrying for shelter."
OK. I made up the last bit.
But for accuracy, Rob Portman, a Republican from Ohio, might prefer BBC News Online's version to that on the Davos tourism website.
A website which also promised that anyone seeking the "tranquil idyll over the agitated life in the thriving centre" would find "peace and quiet at heart of nature" in the Swiss resort.
Rather than the thick edge of the tongue of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who escalated a debate on "Trust and Governance for a new Era" into a warning that we had entered World War Three.
And that the US was to blame.
'Collateral damage'
It used to be a joke, in Britain at least, that the US, having entered the first two world wars late, would be bang on time for the third.
But the scenes portrayed by Dr Mahathir, of Afghans and New York bankers killed since September 11 labelled no more than "collateral" damage, of terrorist and US leaders locked in a cycle of "hatred, anger, bitterness" were hardly intended to amuse.
Instead, they left some delegates - not all Americans - at the World Economic Forum's annual summit vexed and fuming over the "outburst". (Read meticulously from a prepared text.)
"Mahathir has a tendency to fire off like that," one said.
Another questioned Mahathir's own credentials as a moral saracen, when, at home, he himself has a mixed record of helping the poor.
Too early to tell
Still, what better place than Davos, 1,500m above sea level, to seize the moral high ground, and prompt at least some change of thought amid the Enron-scarred delegates below.
Things don't usually warm up until at least the Friday
"It makes you think that the [terrorism] problem might be chronic, rather than acute," said one executive.
And the day had begun so calmly.
Asked how the week-long summit, the WEF's 33rd annual beano, compared with its predecessors, most had said that it was as yet too early to tell.
"Things don't usually warm up until at least the Friday," said a US telecoms boss.
"Then you'll see the conferences filling up, things starting to get going."
Expensive time
A Brazilian delegate awaited the weekend arrival of Lula, Brazil's new president, to see how his speech in Davos compared with one given at the anti-globalisers' World Social Forum, in Porto Alegre.
Indeed, none of the great and the greater - 2,300 business, political and social leaders are expected to attend - told me to mind my own business News Online, which might have been fair.
Some have, after all, apparently paid $35,000 to attend, about $250 an hour, which makes even a quick interview a loss of expensive time.
That old British saying "penny for your thoughts" hardly accounts for inflation.
Snow
What they did get for their money on the first day was updates on security, business and the environment, a session on Al-Qaeda, and thoughts on the future of the anti-capitalists.
They got an opening lunch, a free Hewlett-Packard organiser (to be given back at the end of the week) and plenty of words beginning with b.
Banker Michael Johnston talked about booms, busts and bubbles. WEF head Klaus Schwab joined the B-team with bond, bind and build.
And they got snow, as the Davos website had forecast.
Running late
Enough indeed to ensure Christopher Graves, managing director of Far Eastern Economic Review, arrived half an hour late for the meeting he was meant to chair.
"It did not help the flow of things," one speaker said later.
"In some ways it would have been better if he had not turned up at all."
Congressman Rob Portman may wish he it had been him who was delayed instead.
He only stood in after original US political speaker, Senator Orrin Hatch, stayed in Washington for a key vote.
Amen
And, however, gamely Mr Portman battled - and he rallied creditably around the theme of defending democracy - the wily Mr Mahathir, with 39 years of political experience and a written speech to back him, was most applauded at the close.
A close which was, in time honoured fashion, marked by a song from a woman of some, environmental, stature.
"Amen," she sang. "Amen, amen, amen, amen."
A rather final end to a worryingly dismal debate.
8 Oct, 2003
 | | By Emma Clark BBC News Online business reporter |
Today, as Dr Mahathir prepares to step down from power, Malaysia boasts a diversified and modern economy, which weathered the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 better than many of its peers.
The consensus is that it will achieve growth of 5.4% next year, outshining almost every country in South East Asia, with the exception of Thailand.
"Malaysia's success has been in diversifying away from [the export] of palm oil and rubber to the assembly of electronics," says Anne Booth, professor of economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London.
"The transition over the last 20 years has been impressive and you have to give credit to Mahathir for that."
Unpredictable
Malaysia's long-standing leader, seen by some outsiders as half-rational, half-quixotic, has exercised tight control over the country's purse strings.
He has provided political stability and papered over ethnic divisions," says Graham Richardson, regional director for Asia at the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). 
He is complex figure - at times, his rants have been off-putting for investors 
EIU
"But he is a complex figure. At times, his rants have been off-putting for investors."
Famously, Dr Mahathir denounced the financier George Soros for sparking the Asian financial crisis, which dealt a mortal blow to Malaysia's 1990s boom.
Then, controversially, he moved to insulate the economy by imposing short-term capital controls to prevent foreign money from leaving the country.
In hindsight, his policy seems to have paid off, as Malaysia bounced back from a steep contraction in GDP in 1998.
The country's dependence on trade meant that the global economic slowdown inevitably took its toll in 2001, but government spending has helped it to ride out the storm.
However, this level of public sector spending - contributing 3.5% to the 4.8% growth achieved by Malaysia in 1999-02, according to investment bank HSBC - could become problematic. 
Tax incentives and generous terms for public sector employees have helped to boost domestic demand, but have also contributed to a budget deficit equal to 5% of GDP.
SOAS' Anne Booth says that Mahathir's successor - the deputy prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi - "might want to rein in budget spending".
Although, the country does not have excessive amounts of public debt, such spending is unsustainable in the long-term.
Threat from China
By pumping up domestic demand, the government has also counteracted a worrying decline in foreign direct investment. This has fallen from 6.4% of GDP in 1990-96 to 1.2% in 2000-02, according to HSBC data.
Much of this can be attributed to the rising dominance of China as a destination for low-tech manufacturing.
Lower costs in China mean that foreign companies are already beginning to transfer their manufacturing away from Malaysia, says the EIU's Graham Richardson. 
The threat of China and its ability to provide a vast domestic market for foreign companies will force Malaysia to discover new niches in the electronics market, adds Ms Booth.
Already, the government has turned its attention to its service industries, such as healthcare and tourism.
It is developing a hybrid of the two with its "health tourism", which offers foreigners cheap operations and four-star recuperation in the country's many hotels.
"It is an attempt by the government to buttress against volatile external demand," says Vasan Shridharan, senior regional economist at HSBC in Singapore.
Eastern promise
In the 2004 budget last month, the government also unveiled measures to boost the sluggish private sector with tax breaks for small- and medium-sized companies.
But, as Mr Shridharan points out, China also presents opportunities for Malaysia - exports to the country have jumped by 43% annually in the last two years, compared to a 0.6% increase in Malaysia's overall exports.
Malaysian unemployment has also remained fairly steady at about 3.5%, despite the falls in foreign investment. [Badawi] is not a one-man band like Mahathir
SOAS
Dr Mahathir's keen stewardship of the economy has spawned various projects - the latest of which is a "knowledge-based economy master plan" to upgrade Malaysia's electronics industry from low to hi-tech.
In the past few years, he has even acted as his own finance minister.
By contrast, Mr Badawi is expected to strengthen the financial team. "I have the impression that that's his style, he's not a one-man band like Mahathir," says Ms Booth.
As Malaysia enters a new phase of economic development, Mr Badawi will need to call upon his cabinet to neutralise the threat from China and steer the economy in yet another direction.
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